The strands of a strand-type rope that has been cut will often unravel and become frayed, and similarly other types of cord ends will often fray. This fraying is sometimes remedied by tying the strands together to prevent unraveling, or by burning or melting the cord end, which acts to hold the strands together.
Also known are cord end covers which are inserted over, and are retained on, the end of the cord in a manner to prevent the unraveling and fraying of the cord. A search of the U.S. Patent literature has developed the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,417--Mackal, shows a device to hold a valve of a particular type of catheter (a "balloon" catheter) in place. This device comprises an outer sleeve in which fits an inner sleeve having fingers which are pushed inwardly as the inner sleeve is pushed into the outer sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,918,120--Yoshikawa, shows a two-part cable end, comprising a body part that fastens to the cable, and a clamping ring that fits around the body part.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,088,702--Orenick et al., shows a cable fastener with arms (FIG. 6).
U.S. Pat. No. 1,793,882--Yanchenko shows an electric cable securing device comprising an inner sleeve (shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) and an outer sleeve (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2). The inner sleeve is inserted over an interior portion of the cable, and the inner sleeve is surrounded and locked by the outer sleeve, which in turn is inserted in a hole in a wall of an electric junction box, so that of the electrical cable is held in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,644,311--David, shows another electric cable securing device in which an inner member is locked in place on a cable by an outer sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,573,737--Norman, shows an inner sleeve 2 (FIG. 4) having some toothed fingers 3. The end of the rope is fed into the inner sleeve, 2, and an outer sleeve 8 is slid over the inner sleeve 2 containing the rope so that the fingers 3 are compressed against the rope.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,420,632 and U.S. Pat. No. 1,392,339, both by Kelly, show cord tips comprising an inner clamping member locked in place by an outer sleeve. In the Kelly '339 patent, the inner clamping member comprises multiple legs that have inwardly pointing teeth to better clamp the cord end. Additionally in the Kelly '339 patent, there is a barbed central spike member 11a that enhances retention of the cord.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,402,341--Chaffee, shows a lace tip which includes an inner multi-legged member that is held in place by an outer sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,297,615--Voss et al., shows a hollow cap inside which the rope end is inserted.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,283,438--Boomer, shows another type of cap.
U.S. Pat. No. 716,877--Durand, shows a rope tip that is held in place by a screw.